Making the World a Safer Place

North Korea acknowledges ‘sign of change’ in relations with US

March 21, 2018

Washington Examiner:

‘A SIGN OF CHANGE’: It’s been two weeks since the dramatic White House driveway announcement that President Trump had agreed to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and today we have the first glimmer of acknowledgment from Pyongyang.

A commentary in the state-run Korean Central News Agency credited a “proactive measure and peace-loving proposal” by North Korea for creating a “dramatic atmosphere for reconciliation,” between North and South Korea, and for “a sign of change” in North Korea-U.S. relations.

It also rejected the idea that North Korea was feeling the pressure from international sanctions, calling that idea “rubbish” spread by “hostile forces” that are “just as meaningless as a dog barking at the moon.” Instead, it claimed the “great change in the north-south relations is not an accidental one but a noble fruition” thanks to North Korea’s “proactive measure, warm compatriotism and will for defending peace.”

There was no mention of any time or place for the expected meeting sometime in May between Trump and Kim. And there was none of the usual denunciations of annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which the Pentagon insisted yesterday would be the “same scale, scope, and duration as previous years,” despite the delayed start because of the Winter Olympics in South Korea…